Alex flicked his fingers over his cell screen and groaned. “Check it out.” He handed me his phone. “Tiffany posted a rant about Derek dumping her.”

I scanned the screen. Lots of all-caps screaming and many, many exclamation points. “Sounds like Tiff got burned.”

He shrugged. “Haven’t we all?”

I stretched out my legs. “Not really, no.” Just the one time.

Alex sighed next to me. “Whatever.”

“I don’t do breakups, because I just do hookups. You should try it. Save you all that emo damage.”

He chucked a piece of soda ice at me. “You only think there’s no damage. I’m the one they come crying to after you dump them.”

I stared at him, surprised. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.” He took off his shades and glared at me. “They all say they’re not going to fall for you, that they know what they’re getting into. But you spin your Slade spell and they fall in love. Then you lose interest and break their hearts. Honestly dude, it’s getting old.”

I gaped at him. “Are you for real?”

He nodded. “I am. How ’bout you keep it in your pants this summer? Or—here’s a new concept—try to actually have a relationship that lasts longer than a week.”

Anger flared in my chest. “What is up with you, dude?”

He wouldn’t look at me. Alex had been my best friend since kindergarten. I didn’t get why he was judging me all of a sudden.

“Look,” he finally said, turning his gaze to me. “I know when Kristen dumped you, your heart was totally broken. You were a wreck. But dude, you really need to mellow out the whole player thing.”

I stared at my feet, unable to think of a reply.

“Seriously Slade. Have you ever considered dating someone long enough to have a real relationship? Do you even see these girls as real people?”

That pissed me off. “Of course I do. Look, the girls I hang out with are in it for the same reasons as me. None of them are looking for a fairy-tale romance, or whatever.”

Alex snorted. “Right.”

I clenched my fists, adrenaline shooting through me. “What the hell, dude? Why are you giving me crap?”

He narrowed his eyes, but didn’t reply. I jumped up and dove into the pool, staying underwater for as long as I could. Lungs burning, I broke the surface. Alex reclined on his lounge chair, flipping through a magazine like nothing was wrong.

I swam toward the other end of the pool, kicking furiously, as if that could push away Alex’s words.

I was not a man whore. Did girls like me? Yes. Did I take what was offered to me? Yes. Did I ever turn them away, like if I thought they weren’t in it just for fun? Okay, so maybe that was more of a gray area. But I liked all of them. I did. When I was with them, I was with them.

And when I wasn’t, well…I just wasn’t.

A sleek, tanned body cannonballed next to me, showering me with water and pissing me off. I turned to the source and saw Alex, grinning.

“Take it back,” I demanded.

“What?”

“You called me a man whore.”

He looked surprised, then he laughed. “No I didn’t. But I wish I had. How ’bout I just call you bro-ho for short? Since you’re hardly a man.”

I splashed water at him as hard as I could.

“Bro-ho!” he yelled, sending a wave of water my direction.

I grabbed him around the neck and we went underwater, shoving each other and kicking. I heard the lifeguard’s whistle and we broke apart, rising back above the surface, laughing.

Lindsay the lifeguard glared down at us from her plastic throne. “Come on, you guys. Knock it off.”

“You know you love it,” I called up to her. “Watching two hot, half-naked guys wrestle.”

She bit back a smile, then turned away to focus on the little kids. Lindsay and I had been a thing once. For a week or so, last summer. At least, I think it was last summer.

“Let’s eat,” Alex called over his shoulder as we swam back toward our pool chairs.

The sun baked our skin dry while we ate our burgers. Mine was a double-cheese. Alex had a veggie abomination.

“Want my advice about Bird Brain?” Alex asked around a mouthful of his sawdust burger.

“Nope.” I spoke around an even bigger mouthful of fries.

He ignored me. “Be nice to her. You’re stuck with her for the whole summer. You might as well try to make it as painless as possible.”

I swallowed my fries. “When I am ever not nice to girls?”

He shot me a look. “Let’s just say you have…degrees of niceness, when it comes to girls. Trina’s way down your scale. Sort of like you’d help her up if she fell down in front of you, but you wouldn’t notice when she tripped over you in the first place.”

I took another bite, chewing slowly while formulating my argument.

“Also,” he continued, “you might actually learn something from her extreme organizational skills.”

“That’s crazy talk,” I said. “I know how to be organized. I just choose to spend my time doing other things. And of course I’d notice if she tripped over me.” Because that frigging binder would explode and I’d have critical paper cut injuries from the notebook shrapnel.

Alex leaned back and closed his eyes. “I don’t know why I bother giving you advice.”

“Me, either,” I agreed. “I do just fine without it.”

He snorted next to me. “Really? What about when I advised you not to invite Samantha to prom?”

Ouch. Sam had turned into Super-stalker, calling me night and day for weeks leading up to the prom, and for weeks after the prom, too. I’d ended up changing my cell number.

“Okay, so maybe I should have listened to you. Usually my stalker radar is pretty good.”

“Not that time.” He slurped his soda. “And then there was the memorable ski weekend with the Worthington twins.”

I cringed. The weekend had started out great. I’d gone skiing with Alex’s family. The twins’ parents had been out of town, but they let the girls use the ski condo. When we ran into them on the slopes, they’d invited us to hang out at their place. It had been awesome, until their boyfriends showed up.

How was I supposed to know the twins were dating college guys? And that they told them where they were staying? Alex and I had pretended we were a couple so the guys wouldn’t beat us up.

“Okay, dude. I get the point, but you’re not exactly a saint,” I argued.

“I never said I was,” he said. “But the difference is I actually care about the guys I’m with.” He sighed dramatically. “You know me. I’m a sucker for love.”

I pointed a french fry at him. “See, that’s your problem. You’re too much of a romantic. And look what happens. You get your heart broken.” It was true. I’d been there for him every time. One broken heart was enough of a lesson for me. I wasn’t dumb enough to risk that again.

Alex was quiet for a moment. “Maybe so. But in between the heartbreaks? When I’m in love? It’s awesome. You should try it sometime.” He paused, then shot me a grin. “Man ho.”

“Sap.”

“Bro-ho.”

“You’re addicted,” I said. “To the drama. To the crazy highs and lows.”

“Cynic,” he retorted. “Just wait. One of these days, it’ll happen to you.”

“Wanna bet?”

He rubbed his chin. “Why yes, I believe I will take that wager. Fifty bucks says one of these days you’re going to fall. Hard. And you won’t know what hit you.”

I shook my head. “No way. No how.”

“You’ll see. Some day you’ll be the dork spelling out ‘I love you’ in chocolate chips on a huge cookie for some unlucky girl.”

I gaped at him. “Who would do something that lame-stream?”

He ducked his head, looking sheepish. “Me. For Tim. Last year on Valentine’s Day.”

We laughed, then he sat up straight all of a sudden, shoving his burger aside. “Okay, here’s a safer bet. You think you’re man enough to get Trina to lighten up?”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “Define ‘lighten up.’”

He rubbed his chin. “Dancing in the streets. Setting her binder on fire.”